Memories
by MusicLover500
Summary: [Oneshot- Prequel to 'More Than Memories'. Inspired by the song 'Memories' by Within Temptation.] Elena is forced to live with some family friends in L.A. and has a run-in with Angel Investigations one night that leads to her developing a relationship with Doyle. However, she should have known it wouldn't last.


*Originally posted 11/16/13*

Vampire Diaries/Angel- Elena/Doyle 'Memories'

Fandoms: Vampire Diaries, Angel

Pairing: Elena/Doyle

Genre: Romance/Tragedy

_All of my memories keep you near_

_The silent whispers_

_The silent tears_

_Together in all these memories_

_I see your smile_

_All of the memories I hold dear_

_Darling you know I'll love you till the end of time_

_-'Memories' by Within Temptation_

Memories:

It all began when Elena had been forced to live with some old family friends in L.A. for a bit to hide until everyone knew for certain Klaus wouldn't find out she was alive and come back to kill her. She had been furious at everyone- especially Damon- for planning this without letting her voice her opinion on it or give her a chance to argue. The anger faded somewhat a few days before she left, but she still somewhat pissed that they assumed they knew what was best for her.

Because of that, she didn't give as long of a goodbye as she would have liked to everyone, but at least they seemed to understand her anger with them- at least, she liked to think they did.

The family friends she was being forced to live with were two people she hadn't seen since her parents funeral, and even then didn't really know much about them. They weren't bad; they were actually fairly nice and parenting, which only made her long for the way things were before even more. She actually liked them quite a bit; she felt like a normal 18 year old for the first time in years.

Due to this, she enrolled in a local high school, improved her grades quite a bit, and was able to quite worrying about Klaus showing up suddenly and finishing what the sacrifice was meant to do.

However, she should have known her sense of normalcy couldn't last.

-Elena/Doyle-Elena/Doyle-

About a month after she started living with the family friends, they all but shoved her out the door, claiming she needed to get out more and find friends with others her age.

She hadn't made many friends really at her high school- no matter how normal everything had been feeling, she had trouble discussing normal, trivial things with those her age since she all but forgotten what it was like to talk about something that didn't involve some impending supernatural threat. So she just walked down the streets of Los Angeles, keeping an eye out for any shady people lurking in the dark alleyways, with no idea where to go or what to do.

The brunette hardly noticed the figure in front of her until she ran into it.

"Ow!" She exclaimed. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there-" She continued, glancing up at the person, only for her apology to die when she saw the face. The face was like nothing she had ever come across before- gold eyes, wrinkles on the forehead; almost like what she would imagine a humanoid demon would look like. _But demons don't exist… do they? _She wondered.

The thing just gave her a smile in return and took a step towards her. Elena briefly noticed the fangs the figure had before her natural instincts kicked in and she turned and ran.

The sound of feet hitting the pavement behind her let her know the thing- whatever it was- was giving chase, and she turned a corner, hoping to find somewhere she could hide… only to find a dead end.

"Shit!" She cursed, turning every which way for something that she could use as a weapon. A growl from the mouth of the alleyway caused her to sharply glance up and find the figure moving slowly towards her.

Having no idea what else to do, she pressed herself up against the back wall and closed her eyes, hoping it was just some nightmare and she'd wake up soon.

Elena was vaguely aware of another set of footsteps joining the first. _Great, it brought a friend. _She thought, before the sounds of a struggle reached her ears. Confused, she cracked open her eyelids in time to see a man stab the figure with something very sharp and wooden-like and the figure turn into dust in front of her. She watched the particles settle on the pavement, stunned.

"Are you ok?" A voice asked, jarring her out of her shock. She glanced up to see it was the man who'd likely just saved her life. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes.

She nodded briefly before blurting out something that had been bugging her. "What was that? Some sort of demon?" She asked. "And how did you know how to kill it?"

The man hesitated briefly before replying. "I'll explain everything; first we need to find somewhere secure though." She nodded and followed him out of the alleyway. She knew it was probably stupid, but he had just saved her life; he couldn't be that bad.

-Elena/Doyle-Elena/Doyle-

Elena stared between the three occupants of the room, mouth open in shock. The man- who'd introduced himself as Angel- had taken her back to a building that held an office called 'Angel Investigations' to explain everything. There had been two other occupants in the office when they arrived: a woman and a man. The woman she found out was Cordelia and the man was Doyle. The thing, the three of them explained to her, and been a vampire.

She'd also learned some interesting things about the three of them: Doyle apparently received visions, and it was through one of them Angel knew where she was.

"That's not possible. Vampires don't look like that." She said, shaking her head. "I've seen a few, and none of them ever looked like that." She added, remembering Damon and with a twinge of pain, Stefan.

"Oiginals." Angel said suddenly, causing Elena and the other two to turn to him in confusion. "You must have met them. Are they descended from a family called Originals?" He asked. She nodded.

"Wait, there's two types?!" Cordelia exclaimed.

"And we're just hearing about this now?" Doyle interjected.

"I'd heard of them, but I never met one." Angel explained.

Elena felt like she was missing something. "How do you know all of this?"

"Because I happen to be a vampire." Angel admitted. The three of them looked at her for her reaction; she was stunned, sure, but if they were looking for her to start running for the hills would be disappointed. Judging by the fact he saved her life, she assumed Angel was like Stefan or Caroline in a way. "You don't look like most people do when they hear this news." He added.

She shrugged. "You saved my life; how evil can you be if you did that?" She glanced at the clock and saw how late it was. "I should probably get going. I promise I'll keep your secret." She said.

"I'll go with you- you really shouldn't be walking around without a weapon at this time of night." Doyle offered. Elena nodded and gave him a small smile.

-Elena/Doyle-Elena/Doyle-

Elena found herself spending as much free time as she could with the crew of Angel Investigations the rest of her time in LA, mostly with Doyle. The two quickly became friends.

They had started when he'd invited her to join him for lunch when she stopped by one weekend, saying Cordelia was supposed to go with him but got called in for an audition. The two talked about different things; mainly, she told him more about the types of vampires she was used to, and he explained more about the ones like Angel. However, it soon turned into what Mystic Falls was like and what Ireland was like.

It wasn't long before other things were discussed too. She told him about the sacrifice and Klaus one evening, about how it was her fault everyone she cared about had either been torn away or were living in constant danger. He had grabbed her hand then, and fiercely told her it wasn't her fault. She had nodded and offered him a small smile of thanks, which he returned. Somehow, though, the two had ended up kissing.

She could easily say it was the best one she'd ever had.

The brunette also learned a secret Doyle admitted he kept from everyone but Angel: the fact he was half-demon. She told him she didn't care about that, and explained about her relationship with Stefan.

"He doesn't deserve you." Doyle said at the end. She looked up at him, surprised. "You were only trying to protect everyone." He elaborated in reference to the part where her and Stefan had fought because of her willing to die for her loved ones.

"And who, by your definition, would deserve me?" She asked teasingly, pushing Stefan out of her head. He merely kissed her in response.

-Elena/Doyle-Elena/Doyle-

A few months later, she got a call from Jeremy saying she needed to come back to Mystic Falls as soon as possible because Klaus had somehow found out she was alive and was looking for her and that she would be safer in Mystic Falls.

Much like when she had been forced to move to L.A., she fought to stay, but in the end reluctantly agreed to go back for a few months, until they knew she'd be safe again. She had gone over to Doyle's apartment after the call. Needless to say, they had a long goodbye that night.

-Elena/Doyle-Elena/Doyle-

It had been weird being back in Mystic Falls after so long, and definitely strange not seeing Doyle every day. They had managed, surprisingly, to keep their relationship alive through phone calls.

Then, one day, she received a call from him explaining there was a group of pure demon activists terrorizing Los Angeles and that they were going to try and stop them. "There's a chance we might not make it back. In case that does happen… I love you." He said.

"I love you too. Try to not get killed, alright?" She replied before they hung up.

She waited impatiently for him to call again, but as the days turned into weeks she began to fear the worst.

At long last, she heard the familiar sound of her phone ringing. She grabbed it and answered it as fast as she could.

"Hello?" She said eagerly.

_"Elena?" _Angel's voice answered.

"Angel? Why are you…" She began, but then her fears of the past couple of weeks came back full force. _Please let them be wrong._ She prayed, but she had to know. "Has something happened?"

There was a long pause at the other end of the line, like the vampire was trying to figure out how to tell her something. Her heart began to sink rapidly. _"Yes. Doyle… he's dead. I'm sorry." _He said at long last.

At his words, she felt both her heart and hope shatter into a thousand irreplaceable pieces. She barely registered Angel's next words; her mind seemed to have frozen.

_"The group of pure demons created this machine that would vaporize anyone with humanity in it. When they activated it, he sacrificed himself to shut it off. There's nothing anyone could have done."_

The tears formed halfway through the conversation, but it wasn't until they hung up that she let them fall. And they didn't stop. She cried just as hard, if not harder, than when she had found out her parents hadn't made it out of the car.

It got to the point she had cried herself out and could only get sick- something she'd noticed she'd been doing a lot lately. Jeremy and Alaric weren't home, for which she was grateful; she really didn't think she could mention his name right now.

When she managed to stop throwing up, she leaned back against the bathroom wall and tried to comfort herself with the memories of them, and it worked… until she replayed what had occurred the last night they saw each other face to face. Then the tears began again, and she found herself heaving once more.

It hit her a few days afterwards, in which her crying had subsided mostly and she could replay their memories without sobbing, as she threw up again, that maybe there _was _a specific reason she was throwing up… and wasn't because she was sick or she had cried herself out.

She placed a hand on her stomach and looked at it. It looked the same, though she thought it might be a tiny bit bigger. She couldn't help but smile- she knew when Alaric, and probably the others found out she would probably be dead- but right now she was content with the fact she now had more than memories keeping Doyle alive.

-Elena/Doyle-Elena/Doyle-

_Because today's *my birthday (turning 15… where does time go?) I decided I'd write a oneshot/drabble about one of my (many) crossover OTP: Doyle/Elena. I'm sorry if Doyle's out of character- I tried my hardest, but I haven't had a chance to rewatch the episodes with Doyle yet. And yes, Elena's pregnant… I considered not putting this in, but then figured, what the hell? I was aiming for the ending to be sad- hence the use of Within Temptation's song 'Memories'- but I think I failed. I may go back and rewrite this later, but I do plan on possibly making a full length story out of the ending._

_*Birthday: 11/16, when this story was originally posted._

_Please review! It's one of the best gifts you can give me!_


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